Rust, Tears, and Smoke - The Chunin Exams!
by Ruby-the-Ninja
Summary: After Naruto and Sasuke leave Konoha life falls back into its normal cycle; including the Chunin Exams. A cell of Shinobi from Takigakure catch the eye of the competitors as well as the officials. Their strange masks arouse suspicion. Taki, Natchi, and Aburatsubo are a cell of ninja like no other: Join them as they take on Your favorite Sand and Leaf Ninja. OC team. No parings.
1. Chapter 1 A Rude Awakening!

**Chunin Exams; We get One Try -This is Our Only Chance!**

**Ogayo gosayumus, Readers! I'd like to say thank-you so much for clicking on thisss! :D My name is Ruu-Chan and this, my friends, is a little intro. Usually I won't do these at the beginning of each chapter, but I decided to this time, since it's the first time anything will be submitted ever. Oh, yeah – this is my first story. Please be nice, and like leave reviews and stuff so I know if it's good or what. :) I've had this idea for a while about creating a naruto character, who had her own background (no – her entire village wasn't massacred, and her entire purpose in life isn't to seek revenge, or even to love a cannon character. :D ) I hope you enjoy her story! Her name is Fumiko No Taki. He story begins in the midst of the Chunin exams. Her teammates are Natchi Hikoharu and Aburatsubo Narumoya, and since their all my OC's so your input would help me greatly! **

**The story may seem a little hard to understand at first... but please stick with I really think you'll like it! Every odd chapter starts with a flash back or a flash forward… so here we Go!**

**P.s. This story is rated mature just for Hidan's mouth (never mind the fact that Hidan won't be in the story for quite a while.) It's actually rated for Taki's mouth (or mouths… Haha – you'll get it soon enough). What can I say, she could give Hidan-san a run for his money!**

**P.s I edited this first chapter… to make it better, yeah? ( ****EDITED 11152012**)

**P.p.s Taki is in no way related to Deidara. Or Hidan. **

**P.p.p.s This is a disclaimer… Because I don't own Naruto. Sorry if you thought I did – I don't. Although I really wish I did. I'd kill off all the Uchihas. HA! Just kidding though, I only own my OCs. ;) ( But i would kill of all of the Uchihas. this is no joke.) You know - If i owned Naruto... but i dont.. so yeahhh. **

**See-you at the end of the chapter! ~Ja Nai~**

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_Chapter 1; A Rude Awakening! _

_The girl in the chair is slouched down. Her brownish-red hair hangs in her eyes, the metallic beads in her hair are the only thing that seems to stand out about her. She's been changed into prisoner's garb, the cream-colored suit covers her from head to toe. Around her ankles, are chakra-restriction cuffs, there are a set around the girls wrists as well. It was hard to locate a pair of these, they haven't been needed for a long time. The village was at peace. At peace…Until all of this. _

_'Did you plan the event in question, before going though with it?' _

_At the sound of the metallic voice tearing though the interrogation room speakers, her head rolls around and she lifts her face up, the only thing she can see is her own reflection in the mirror-like walls around her. It's obvious she's not in the best shape, her skin is pale, and she has the start of a bruise beginning to form on her left cheek. _

_ The voice repeats its question. Momentarily she forgets about the question and is preoccupied with her reflection, she sits up a little straighter, and carelessly flicks the hair from her eyes. She glares at the speaker when, once again the question is posed to her. _

_'Did you have anything to do with the planning of the event in question?'_

_She shrugs, and yawns. _

_'Fumiko No Taki. This is the final time the question will be posed to you. Were you responsible for the deflection of Natchi Hikoharu, and Aburatsubo Narumoya?' _

_'Yeah… what's wrong with that?'_

_The speakers are silent for a moment._

_The voice crackles back to life again. 'By what means did you persuade them to join you?'_

_'How dose anything in this town get done?,' her voice grows cold, ' I made them.' She's sitting up in her chair, but her head is resting on the back of the chair. She's staring defiantly up at the ceiling. _

_The voice prods again, 'You used force?' at this the girl smiles and scoffs. _

_'Yeah,' she drawls out the word sarcaticly, as if relishing in its entirety. _

_The voice again, 'How were you able to receive admittance into the exams?'_

_'I forged documents, stole headbands, formed an alliance with Takigakure. Seemed like a good village… nice strong name, Eh?' she cackles at her own joke; the village shares her name, she continued in a bored sort of way, 'It was just too easy, as if they were asking for someone to fuck with their exam!' _

_The voice is quick to reply, as if it's speaker had lost all composure. 'You are not a genin; you had no right to enter that exam.'_

_At this the girl twitches, a subconscious thing really, out of anger. 'Really? Really… WHAT RIGHT?' she's yelling now, her voice is bouncing off the mirror plated walls. 'I was born with this Kekkei Genkai, and I have no RIGHT? I didn't choose to be born like this, and neither did anyone else in this damn village born with a Kekkei Genkai!' at this point she's wringing her wrists in desperation to get out of the cuffs. 'I'm just the first one to stand up to you mother-fuckers!' with this she kicks back her chair, causing the mirror plated ground underneath her to shatter. She's able to pull one wrist from the chakra inhibiting cuffs, as she struggles to get her hand out from under the smashing weight of the chair. As she dose the voice composes it's self and asks yet another question._

_'How often do you practice jutsu? Dose anyone help you execute jutsu?' this question is posed by a slightly different voice. It's tone is lighted that the other voice, or perhaps it's just a speaker malfunction. This room hasn't been used for questioning enemy shinobi for sometime. _

_'All the time baby!,' she continues to speak as she forms a hand sign, and uses a highly acidic form of saliva to melt the other cuff off her writs. ' Why would you think anyone is helping me… It's just me and my lonesome.' She smiles as the cuff drops off with a quick snap – and a clatter as it hits the ground. _

_The voice seems completely composed not worried at all about the fact that the girl has now escaped her handcuffs. She begins to stand up, and the voice prods again. _

_'I see here that you have a record of disorderly and violent behavior, why do you think this is?' _

_She begins to work on her ankle shackles – the work is much faster now that she had two hands, 'What can I say…my mother never loved me?' she pretends to cry. Loud and obnoxiously theatrical wails. 'Wahhh-ahah, my momma never loved me!' she composes her self and gets to her feet, now completely free of her bonds. _

_The audio is momentarily filled with a buzz of static, the microphone being switched a third time maybe? And a voice with a much younger tone takes over the questioning. _

_'Why did you do this?' _

_The girl seems to blow off the question entirely, preoccupied with finding away out of the mirror like holding cell. She treks around the small shelter, peering as the seams in the mirrors where one ends and another begins._

_After several minutes of silence she finally answers the question._

_'Because I wanted to be a shinobi.' _

_She then smashes her arm through a mirror and pulls out the audio and video feed wires to the monitors in the questioning room, thus halting the questioning process._

Meanwhile in the questioning room…

_The man in the doctor's coat watches the screen go spotty, and then fail completely; the last thing he sees is the defiant brunette's glare directly into the camera. (How she knew it was there was beyond him, maybe it was just a streak of luck) _

_He turned to the younger boy behind him, 'Natchi, what did I tell you about asking vague questions? It looks like you have made her angry now.'_

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'_Damn –_'He swore in his head… true – he wasn't found of vulgar language, but considering the circumstances he'd make an exception to this rule.

He had gotten separated from the rest of his team. They'd agreed to stay in touch, with help from the communication devices that they had stolen. His had short-circuited a few minutes ago, and had left him with a nasty ringing in his right ear.

Now he was alone in the Forrest of Death – during the 2nd phase of the exam all alone and he had absolutely no clue where the other two had gotten off to.

This time the exam was closely associated with the year before it; mostly due to the fact Kohana had been left reeling after the invasion by Suna & Orochimaru. After all, Last year's exam had been canceled halfway through the 4th and final round.

Last year's 2nd phase of the exam had been to work as a team and acquire a set of heaven and earth scrolls; This years had been to have each person on the team to acquire a set of yin and yang scrolls. _Clearly, they hadn't had much time to rethink their testing strategy,_' he thought to him self as he backtracked what he thought was the way he'd come from.

Taki, the sensory ninja on their team, had noticed another team's chakra earlier and she had suggested they split up and try to ambush them.

If his receiver had been working properly, they would have been fine - but the crappy second hand receivers they'd taken from some black market shop, had conked out and left him in this predicament.

As he traversed the gnarly tree stumps and roots that seemed to cover every inch of this part of the Forrest, he focused on listening to the sounds around him. There were a few birds far off – and other than that the Forrest was virtually silent. Light filtered through eerily, painting the Forrest in a light golden hue. If he had to guess a time he'd say it was a few minutes past 6 o'clock since the sun had just rose. It was early morning and they had been awake all night, Taki and Aburatsubo had somehow convinced him that a nocturnal sleep patterns would benefit their chances of catching another team off guard.

Walking for a few more meters he noticed that he was close to the place where they had originally split up, he stopped at a large distorted tree that looked as if it had been splashed with something highly acidic. He remembered this. He made his way around the base of the tree to the other side where he used kunai to climb its length until the first branch was available. He ventured out onto the skinner part of the limb as fare as he dared. He might be able to see the others from here, he thought looking down through the bare spots in the branches that made tiny skylights onto the open area below. They also might be able to see straight above.

He crawled his way back to the intersection of the trunk and the branch and leaned his back onto the tree.

It was hard to tell which way his teammates would have gone from here. The team they had been tracking was far off, but there was still a chance that they could have somehow sensed them.

He pondered what his team mates would have done in this situation.

Aburatsubo was a tall, lanky boy with dark purpleish-black hair tried back into a high samurai style pony tail. He wore a pair of thin rimmed glasses – and was often the quiet voice of reason on the team. He came from a clan with Kekkei Genkai – he was able to dissolve his entire body into a smoke like compound and elude attacks. He was the long range fighter on their team. He fought with a medium katana striking quietly and effortlessly. It was harder for him to keep his bodily appearance normal, than just to dissolve into smoke, in fact the end of his pony tail dissolved slowly into a stream of smoke – he also smelled faintly like something was on fire.

Aburatsubo would have just continued on as if nothing had happened – and magically showed up with his creepy sense of direction, looking as if he hadn't just trekked through a nasty Forrest.

In contrast the boy leaning on the tree wore an expensive looking yukata and looked as if he had been dragged face first through a patch of cactus. His blonde hair was mussed and a sheen of sweat dripped from his brow. He had scuff marks on his face and dirt on his clothing. He was the team's medic/long range member. He was an ace with weapons… mostly the throwing kinds, like kunai and shurdiken. He worked part time in a hospital and picked up medical jutsu easily enough. Strategy and traps were his specialty_, so being lost in this damn jungle really wasn't agreeing with him. _He had slumped over and was catching his breath – he really was tired.

He told him self he was just resting his eyes but soon he began to flutter into the realms of sleep. He was thrown harshly back into consciousness at sound of a twig snapping near by. He kept his eyes closed though – letting on that he hadn't heard the sound. He strained to hear anything else, but now the forest was silent.

The woods seemed to be holding his breath. In situations like this was it best to run, or just to attack first. Maybe it was better to wait it out – perhaps they hadn't even known he was here. Or God - maybe it was just a chubby squirrel that thought it could venture onto the skinny branches.

Just as he had convinced him self that it was nothing more than a weight-challenged squirrel, there was a rustle; a very large and substantial rustle at that. And this time it sounded closer… and it sounded like it was directly in front of him. Last time the snap had come from the right side but far off. This time it was much closer. He tensed_. It was now or never._

He sprang into a couching position, a double-bladed-kunai already in his hand. By the time he had gotten to his feet their was no doubt in his mind that the sound he had heard had come from a person. When he had moved he'd heard the light swish of someone jumping to another branch. They had jumped closer to him – but they didn't need to know he knew that.

He scanned the area around him; his attacker was in once of the trees for sure – they were at least 50 feet off the ground. He focused on the spot where this invader had been; A tree off to his left that was filled with dense greenery. If he was right about the spot where they had been before he jumped; they had jumped right …

_There. _

He hurled his kunai into the precise spot where he had known his attacker was all along. He heard a slight gasp, and guessed he had hit his target. The kunai he used were special – the knives were attacked to chakra. He could have aimed twenty feet away from his target and still have hit them. The joy of hitting his target was short lived though – as soon as the weapon found its mark their was the sound of something hurtling towards him. He turned to see a smoke bomb go off. He rushed into the smoke anticipating the attack and using the smoke against his attacker to cloche his own location.

Inside of the smoky cloud it was impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. The thick smoke began to catch in his throat. He knew this smell; it was a spicy incense smell that belonged in a temple.

He ran out of the smoke cloud and was barreled into by a dark shape descending from the branches above. The attack hit him square in the chest, and caused him to be smacked backwards into the ground. he braced for the impact of his body hitting the dense wood underneath him.

_'Rarhhh!'_

He opened his eyes to see the twisted features of a demon dropped down from above him.

He involuntarily let out a small yell – and lunged backward, his foot catching on a knot on the tree. He fell onto his back. The thing dropped down from the branch it had been suspended upside down on. This only caused the thing to laugh.

The mouth was too wide for the face and stretched open in an almost comical way. A lolling tongue hung out a mouth lined with fang like teeth. It's face was hunched over him.

The thing leaning over him and laughed manically. The laugh started off quiet and grew into something that seemed to cut through the silent forest in a matter of seconds – disturbing a flock of birds that flew off above head and lent their shadows to the growing terror building in the boy's chest.

And then like a switch had been thrown, the things laughter changed turning from ear-splitting and insane, to a lighter laugh filled with actual joy at the boy's fear and embarrassment.

Only as it reared back on to its haunches did he realize; he inched forward and flipped the mask up and off the girls face.

Underneath the mask was a face he knew well.

'Natchi! You- you should – you should know better – than ta'-' the rest of her sentence was nearly incomprehensible between her fits of laughter.

Behind him he heard the footsteps of his other teammate. Natchi felt weirdly happy and pissed off at the same time.

His teammate Aburatsubo walked past him, now back in his solid from, and crouched down next to Taki, placing his hand on her shoulder to steady her.

'Taki-san, pull it together. It was funny but this is not the time to be laughing.'

Natchi sputtered for a moment. Finding him self at a loss for words was a real rarity. He couldn't decide who to yell at first.

'Abura – he fell asleep in this fucking death trap! You – can't – can't blame me for wanting to ruff 'em up a little, eh?' still fighting back fits of giggles. But at this point she was wiping her eyes in an attempt to settle down.

Aburatsubo smirked a little at this. He then turned to Natchi.

'Your alright. Just a little shaken up, then?', he said smiling in his weird way, as if this was something he happened to deal with all the time.

At this point Natchi seemed to find his voice.

'Yes – I'm fine despite the face that that little freak just bolted out of the sky, nearly concussed me, and gave me a heart attack!'

'Well then –' Taki said extending her left hand; the palm of which was obscured by a mouth-like opening that she used in battle to drain her enemies of their chakra; ' No hard feelings then?'

Natchi glared at her hand as if it was the cause of all of his problems – and then again it was. She continued to extend her hand, waiting for him to shake it.

She seemed to realize that he wouldn't be forgiving her anytime soon, she huffed and retracted her arm.

'Oh, come on it was funny – and besides you should be glad we found you.' She said, 'We could have just let you wander around until you were attacked by another team. And they wouldn't be so friendly.' She continued ranting but Natchi was distracted by something.

When she retracted her arm, he saw up her sleeve of the matching coats they had bought before entering the chunin exams. Then that Natchi noticed that her hand and arm were stained with a rusty brown substance; which from working long hours in the hospital he knew could only be dried blood.

Aburatsubo and Taki had begun taking about where to make camp for the day when Natchi interrupted them.

'Well, how'd the ambush go, guys?'

They both stopped talking at once. Taki looked to Aburatsubo.

He was the one to explain it.

As soon as Natchi's communication device had shorted out, they'd run into the team they were tracking, and were taken off guard by the absence of their third team mate. They'd had a hard time taking on the team. Taki had done double duty, and taken on a taijutsu specialist and a weapons specialist. While Aburatsubo tried to avoid attacks from a ninja with abilities that would block charka his chakra – thus stopping Aburatsubo's jutsu. It was clear when Taki and Aburatsubo had encountered the other team; they would have needed Natchi in order to beat this team. And they had retreated, they had barely escaped the other team, but Aburatsubo had assured Natchi that they were both alright.

After Aburatsubo had finished explaining, Taki had stood up and stretched her left arm over her head.

She then did a little spin, her arms flying out to her sides, and then threw her left hand into the air. She did a little bow, and snapped twice shouting, 'Olé!'

Taki was always dancing and trying to lift their moods with her antics.

'We should keep moving – I can only hide our chakra signals for so long. Let's put some more distance between our failed ambushe-eez,' she said looking at Natchi still seated on the ruff tree branch. ' – eh?' She started walking away. Aburatsubo nodded and when to help Natchi up.

'Try not to get lost again Natchi-san.' Aburatsubo said to his teammate, extending a pale hand.

Natchi refused the other boy's help, and pushed him-self into a standing position. 'You don't have to lecture me,' he said brushing off his yukata, 'I know this is our only chance, & I'm not going to be the one who messes this up.'

With that he took off in the direction that Taki had gone. Aburatsubo sighed, pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose and followed after his teammates.

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**Like it so far!? SUBSCIRBE and tune in next time learn what team they battled in forest; what village their really from; If Aburatsubo and Taki were telling Natchi the truth about the ambush; and why this is their only Chance!**

**HAHA! Did you get my joke about Taki's _Mouths_? because she has them in her hand!? I am so funny. **

**~Ruu-Chan**


	2. Chapter 2 Fumiko No Taki:

**Chapter 2: Fumiko No Taki: Pretty-Rich-Girl Falls**

**AN/ Hi. I said I wouldn't do this every chapter but I probably lied… haha. Okay – the story will be centered on Natchi's POV for a while, just because. *smiles evily* At the middle of the 3****rd**** chapter it will switch I promise!**

**p.s. I hope you like Abura's Kekkei Genkai, I've never seen anything like it… (Unless there is a filler episode somewhere that I was not informed of… ****_Damn you Fillers._****)**

**p.p.s. In this chapter you get to breifly meet Taki's childhood best friend!1!one1!1!won1! You must be so excited!**

**p.p.p.s. Now! Onward to the Disclaimer!**

**I still don't own Naruto. Or Lee, or Gaara, or even Suigetsu…*sighs sadly* I only own my original characters (Oc's) Taki, Aburatsubo, and Natchi!**

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Taki was their only female teammate. She was the close range member on their team, who doubled as their sensory type ninja. She grew up on the street, and she wasn't exactly sure if she even had a Kekkei Genkai – or what was up with her jutsu. She fought sick hand-to-hand taijutsu, employing anything to her advantage. She also had these… _mouths_ in her hands. They stretched the width across her palm, and had razor sharp teeth. allowed her to bite people and take their chakra. Seeing her hands still freaked Natchi out -_ there was just something so wrong them. _She hadn't lived in their village her entire life – and he guessed she had come from somewhere exotic like Kirigakure or another one of the large ninja villages...and He knew from working at the hospital that she suffered from kleptomania and this part of the exam was especially suited to her.

She usually wore her bangs pinned back and out of her eyes – but she had lost her bobby pins at the beginning of the exams somehow and now her bangs hung loosely in her eyes, every now and then she would swat at them. Her rusty-colored hair hung loosely over her shoulders and two sections of her hair along the side of her face were pulled together with black-and-white beads. She also had a small braid in the back of her hair – tied with none other than a bell. Overall she was pretty, not really anything that you'd fawn over, just average. Natchi guessed it was her attire that usually turned people off of her. She wore the most beat up clothing he knew existed.

Before they had gotten to Konohagakure he had made their entire team stop and buy some new clothing – mostly because he didn't want people thinking they were a team of slumpy genin.

Taki has chosen a standard issued jumpsuit, over that she had thrown a pair of Hakama samurai pants, with pleats just below the hips, that let her skin, and the bottom of her shorts show through. She wore the legwarmers and weights she'd owned since she was like _5_; despite Natchi's best efforts to try and get her to buy new ones. On her feet were a brand-spanking new pair of female ninja shoes, with a bit of heal – which Natchi thought was unusual since she her biggest advantage in battle was her speed, he thought the heels would interfere with her running. But she hadn't had any problems with them yet. She probably wanted the heals so she wouldn't feel so short. Taki stood at 5'2, while both boys were easily 5'5. When she woke him up, she'd been wearing a Kyuuketsuki mask, the vampire-like mask* but when she traveled in the forest she was prone to throwing it in the bottom of her bag.

While at the store Natchi had bought a high-quality sleeve-less yukata, with a blue and green spotted pattern on it. In addition to the new yukata he had bought a pair of pants, another pair of shoes (just in case) and set of arm and leg guards. He remembered his father had a set similar to the ones in the store window, and he'd had the money, so he decided to add them to the cart. He also had been given a mask that matched Taki's. The mask she was prone to wearing was an old theater mask, and apparently one of many she owned based on japanese mythology. His mask was by far the ugliest; after all it was modeled after an oni*. A dark blue mask with a unibrow and fangs protruding it's upper jaw. He was forced to wear it by his team members – but only when they encountered any other teams, if their true identities got out – they were royally screwed. _True_ - He agreed with his teammates that it would be important for them not to be found out, but still, _'Why do I have to wear the ugly mask?,_ he thought to him self, '_Even Aburatsubo's mask is prettier than mine is_.'

Aburatsubo's mask was representation of an Enenra; a Japanese Yokai* said to be made entirely out of the smoke from burnt bones. It was quite ironic when you considered his Kekkei Genkai: the ability to turn his entire body to smoke with only a bit of chakra. In fact most of the time there was some part of him that was smoke, usually the end of his ponytail or a limb. His mask was shaped like a human face but was painted completely white except for the swirls of charcoal smoke that decorated the area arounf it's mouth and eyes. The mask he wore was the simplest out of all theirs but it was the most fitting of his personality. Usually calm and calculated, Aburatsubo always decided on the simplest things; a black t-shirt with a mesh underlay and a pair of new cargo pants were the only things he had purchased when they'd stopped by the ninja supply store. He hadn't even purchased a few smaller weapons like his other two teammates had. In fact he had no use for small weapons like kunai or throwing-stars; only using the twin katana that were only present when he summoned from the inside of his smoke. His clan had once been the most important one in their village, even holding the title of village Kage once. Though after the town's ideals changed his clan had been disgraced and thrown to the bottom of the pecking order, they still taught the principles of their Kekkei Genkai to the younger children in the clan, and Aburatsubo was a prodigy at it. His only problem was staying in his human form, and not completely dissolving into a mass of smoke. Half of his life he'd been frightened of the taller pale boy.

**((A/N: the * Denotes a japanese term that you can look up for more information; basically Taki's mask is vampire-esque; Aburatsubo's is a smoky ghost; and Natchi's mask is a Troll. Now you can see why he is so upset. ))**

Letting his mind wander back to the first time he had seen the gray-pony-tailed-boy's Kekkei Genkai – it had been during a game of soccer in the village; Aburatsubo who had been on offefense and had gotten the ball and was about to make a goal, when a much larger boy playing on Natchi's team had tripped him and plowed him right over. Aburatsubo had never been the strongest and took the fall hard, landing badly on his right hand. Natchi, concerned for the other boy's well-being went to help him up only to receive quite a bone-chilling shock when he'd gone to grab Aburatsubo's hand and received a fistful of smoke instead. Aburatsbuo's hand had dissolved on impact, protecting his body from any possible broken bones...Never the less, Natchi was freaked out and had ignored him for years after that, even to the point of forgetting his name. Natchi felt kind of bad about that now; after all they were team mates and stuff.

Over top of their individual outfits they had thrown large cream-colored knee-length Flak jackets embossed with the Takigakure forehead protector. The Jackets made them look more like a team, and in addition to the theater masks - Natchi had to admit, they looked like a pretty imposing team.

He was brought back to reality when Taki jumped onto the next tree branch and the bell in her hair, jingled a crisp clear note. He had been watching her spring from tree branch to tree branch for quite a while, and the repetitiveness of it had lulled him into memories of their childhood. By now Natchi had gotten used to the shape of her back – she always seemed to be moving, whether it was running; or sitting down, with the ever present tapping of her foot; or it was her habit of dancing absolutely any where. She was always some how moving, secretly Natchi wondered what would happen if she ever stopped.

They had picked up a decent pace. It was about five minutes until Natchi realized something was wrong with her.

He was mid-jump when it happened. Ahead of him he saw Taki bite it on a branch. It was a bad impact too. Her legs seemed to collapse on her, like a marionette whose strings were cut. She took the fall hard scraping the side of her face on the bark. She seemed to catch her self last minute, before she slid off the edge of the branch.

One of them should have caught her – but they were so caught off guard by the sight of her falling that they'd stopped dead about one tree branch behind her. Natchi's first instinct was laugh and point out the impracticality of her shoes, that more than likely contributed to her fall. But what really freaked him out was the fact that she just lay there for a just bit. Just long enough to make Natchi's paranoia skyrocket.

It was worse enough that she'd fallen down; because she was always aware of her body's position, whether she was running full speed or just dodging through groups of tourists in their village. But some how seeing her lay there for a while seemed to make the situation even worse – before leaving for the exam, their team had trained like crazy, and during their practices he'd seen Taki take some bad landings, but she'd always been the first person up, she had this way of rolling her body till she was upright and then springing into action like nothing had happened.

_'Not this time though'_, he thought grimly.

He and Aburatsubo had rushed to help her up. Aburatsubo, who had been ahead of him when she fell, had gotten there first and helped her up already. He reached under her left arm and propped her up. Now that Natchi really looked at her, he noticed that she was very pale, and there was a thin sheen of sweat on her brow. He watched as she gripped onto Aburatsubo's shoulder for support.

Landing next to his teammates, Natchi went to help Taki. Aburatsubo was moving her toward the trunk of the tree. He came up and tried to grasp under her right arm to steady her, but she shrugged quickly away from him.

'Natch, - I'm fine. Just slipped that's all.' She grunted as Aburatsubo helped her sit down with her back to the tree. She closed her eyes and seemed to grit her teeth in pain for at bit.

Aburatsubo looked plainly more troubled than Natchi already felt. The raven haired nin then seemed to remember something, and he fished inside his one of his numerous pants pockets for it. He pulled out a small jar of pills, and shook a few into his hand. He then looked at Taki, back at the bottle of pills, and the proceeded to add almost double the amount to the pills in his hand. He handed them to her.

She ate them without a single comment; crunching them down without water, in one fail swoop. She then suppressed a mild shutter at their taste.

Natchi dug into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water.

'Here,' He offered it to her and she gladly complied with his efforts to help this time, taking a gulp from the water bottle.

Aburatsubo knelt down near her. They seemed to have a silent conversation and it seemed like they were bickering for a bit, to Natchi.

He had decided to repack his backpack – rather than stand there awkwardly and watch them talk among themselves.

He only caught bits and pieces of their hushed conversation.

_'You are not alright,'_- that was Aburatsubo.

Taki chimed in with a comment about just being a little dehydrated.

To which Aburatsubo hissed, that ' _That's the least of your problems!'_

Taki tried to brush him off, and insisted that she was fine.

When Aburatsubo spoke again, he was much quieter and Natchi barely caught what he said. _'It could have been poisoned.'_

Natchi glanced at Taki. She didn't look too good – she was clutching at her right arm.

Natchi decided to speak up, and take the blame.

'Which one of you did I hit with the kunai? I-I didn't look when I grabbed it… and there's a chance it could've been poisoned.' The symptoms she was exhibiting were similar to that of poison, earlier when he thought he was being attacked he had thrown a kunai straight toward his attackers not knowing they were his teammates. 'I have the antidote right here though, so it's fine.'

Aburatsubo spoke again a bit of contempt in his voice, 'You hit me Natchi. It's no big deal though – the knife went right through.'

Taki had taken this opportunity to force her self back into a standing position, and she leapt, onto a nearby branch unsteadily. Aburatsubo was at her back seemingly in an instant. With a hand on her left shoulder holding her back.

'Wait, Taki-san. I think this is good – were secluded enough, and very high off the ground. This is a good spot to camp for the day.' He proceeded to take the backpack Taki had been carrying. She stood there a bit before agreeing.

'Yeah…Seems fine, I guess.' She said sighing a bit, as the weight from her shoulders was lifted.

Natchi followed behind them. If Aburatsubo had been hit with his kunai knife – then what the hell was wrong with Taki? It was possible that it wasn't his teammate, maybe some type of shadow clone. Taki, with her brass personality was against everything she had done in the last five minutes.

Taki was a do-it-herself type of girl; she never wanted help from either of her male teammates. If she couldn't do it her self then it didn't need to be done.

Natchi remembered the first time he and Taki had spared in the academy. They had been pitted against each other almost constantly as children. One particular instance Taki had injured her hand on one of Natchi's shuriken. Natchi had thrown them, purposely underneath her feet; so when she executed a cartwheel to dodge his double-bladed kunai, she would cut her hand on the metal underneath her. It had worked, but when Natchi had been overcome with the glory of his plan working; Taki had responded with a kick to his jaw. Soundly wining their match. Afterwards Natchi had tried to make amends by healing her hand, and she had roughly pushed him away.

He remembered her turning her back on him and walking away with a group of kids that lived in the low-rent apartments in the old part of town. One kid in particular stuck out, a spiky gray-haired boy by the name of Jirokeima or 'Jiro', as he was known to most kids, had run over to him and Taki.

Glaring up a storm at Natchi, he let out a string of curse words longer and more vulgar than anything he'd ever heard. All the while Taki stood by with a smug look on her face; Natchi had fought with Jiro for a spell, exchanging his own insults. Not soon was their row broken up by a teacher The resident teacher at the academy went by the name of Dr. Wong; A stark-skinny man who seemed to lurk where ever their was trouble. Taki had assured their teacher that Natchi wasn't worth their time, and they'd walked away laughing was like that she seemed to constantly have people around her who stood up for her...

Aburatsubo turned to Natchi and threw the bag Taki had been carrying. Natchi caught it, and looked back to Taki. She was still holding her right shoulder, and when she caught him looking she flashed him a smile as if to assure him she was right as rain.

Natchi turned away – she really pissed him off sometimes. Both of them did, There was something wrong with her, not only did she act like it wasn't a big deal, but Aburatsubo seemed to know something had happened but refused to let on.

She and Aburatsubo had known each other since their academy days, even before the ninja program in their village had been disbanded. They were always sharing secrets, or training with out telling him. They were both below him in social status – Aburatsubo was middle class, and Taki she was really low class. Natchi came from family with a lot of money, and lived in the nice part of town. He hadn't associated him self either of them until the academy – and even then, their relationship had been a tumultuous one at that. Natchi and Taki had always been paired up for sparing, and one or the other ended up shouting insults before it was finished. Beside that – Natchi had never been too fond of either of his teammates.

In their village they were both considered a little weird, Aburatsubo for his Kekkei Genkai, and Taki for her boyish-personality and well Kekkei Genkai thing.

She claimed not to have a Kekkei Genkai, but no matter how much research Natchi did he could never find a reference to the jutsu she used in battle. He also knew she didn't use any hand signs. So it had to be some sort of clan ability, right?

He mulled over the possibility of her clans abilities as he unzipped the backpack and began to unpack the hammocks that they would use for the night.

The hammocks they used were unique to their village – as far as he knew. They were dark green, and were covered with leaf-like fringe. When you laid in them, not only were you kept warm by the fringe, but they looked no different from the leaves all around them in the forest. He began to secure one of them to the tree, while a few feet away Aburatsubo was getting up the genjutsu that could keep them safe in the daylight.

He had already lit one of his home-made cigarettes, and was calmly breathing the smoke all around their camp. Instead of dissolving into the air, or getting carried off by the wind like normal smoke; the smoke from Aburatsubo's cigarette hung where he a blown it. Creating a cloak around their camp, this held off most jutsu, which wouldn't allow their Cell to be found by other ninja. And to add another layer of protection to the jutsu, He knew it interfered with ocular-jutsu, because after fighting the last team they had encountered there had been a boy with especially amazing ocular-jutsu, and he seemed pretty amazed that Aburatsubo's smoke messed with his vision.

After he finished with his genjutsu, he continued over to where Taki sat; still smoking as he neared her, she held out a hand as if asking for a smoke.

He passed the cigarette to her and she took a few puffs and then passed it back to him, a disgusted look on her face, suppressing a small cough.

'Abura -These taste like you smell; it's weird, eh?' this was followed by a small smile on Aburatsubo's part, as he took back the cigarette. He sat down beside her and stretched.

Taki hardly noticed – she had become pre-occupied with biting one of her finger nails; which she only did when she was thinking hard about something. It was one habit that Natchi detested the most. He hands always looked ragged, and at some points she would bite them until the skin surrounding her nails would bleed.

Natchi glared at the two of them; they were just sitting there and relaxing, while he was setting up their camp. If it was anyone's job to set up camp – it should have been Taki. She was a girl after all.

Momentarily fueled by his annoyance, he forgot completely about Taki's abnormal condition.

He called to her, knowing he'd get a response; 'Hey – Fumiko – why don't you come over and help? Girls are usually better at this sort of thing anyway.'

He had used her first name.

She loathed her name, it was written with the kanji for 'pretty-rich-girl'... and if Taki was anything, she was the exact opposite of a pretty-rich girl. He appreciated the sick-irony of her name.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth he regretted them.

Taki pulled the finger she had been biting out of her mouth, Natchi noticed that it had already started bleeding. She stormed over to where he calmly set up their things for the night.

Aburatsubo watched her walk over to Natchi. He closed his eyes and took one last drag on the cigarette, readying himself just in case Natchi tried to have a go at Taki.

As Taki towered over Natchi; debating weather to nail him in the crotch, or kick some bark into his eyes; Natchi noticed something...

The right arm of her jacket was dripping. At first Natchi couldn't put two and two together but when he realized the liquid was blood and his medical-nin background took over.

'Taki – holy shh – what happened to your arm?!'

Taki was caught off guard. She seemed to glance around and then noticed the blood. And she actually took a step away from Natchi. She looked back over to Aburatsubo, who had a grim look on his face; he too stared at the pool of blood.

Aburatsubo stood up, and walked back over to where the two other ninja were. His posture was tense and even his long-ponytail had stopped smoking for once.

The eerie feeling that Natchi had experienced while he was alone in the forest had returned full swing.

Taki recovered quickest. The lies fell out of her mouth, with ease.

'It happened during the battle with the team we were tracking; it's nothing more then a cut. It's just bandaged wrong, that's all. Abura can fix it.' she smiled, not only to try to further assure Natchi that she was okay, but to hold back the waves of pain shooting down her arm as well.

She instantly turned away from Natchi, and began to put as much distance from as possible.

Natchi sat stunned for a moment. For the second time that day, he was at a loss for words – and it was still morning. He pushed him self up, and past Aburatsubo, who just turned and let him pass by.

She left a trail of blood droplets in her wake. He was a few feet away from Taki when she stopped abruptly.

'JASHIN – ,' she swore in pain when Natchi tried to touch her arm, 'Don't Natchi – just leave it!' Taki said with her back still to him.

Natchi gritted his teeth, and reached for her arm again. She always did reckless stuff like this; Left her wounds untreated, left broken bones unset – This was something Natchi could help her with but she still turned him down. It was just like the time with the cut on her hand… but somehow this seemed so much worse.

'Fuck off Natchi' she said, shrugging his attempts to get a look at her injury off, once again.

'So apparently you think you're above medical attention, huh?' Natchi called to her, 'Just knock it off – you're hurt and I can help so just let me see it. I'm not your enemy I just what to help' he said a bit softer, while he reached out toward her arm again.

He grasped her at her left uninjured shoulder, and turned her around facing him. Now that he looked at her up close she looked really bad... her skin was pale and she was shivering slightly. She looked into his eyes with a utterly blank expression.

Natchi turned his gaze back to her bleeding-limb. He placed his hands tentatively onto the zipper of her flak-jacket. He began to unzip her jacket, reveling the top of her jumpsuit underneath, it was awkwardly intimate gesture.

Natchi stole a glance at her face; her eyes were closed, and once again her bangs hung across her face obscuring her vision. She was breathing deeply, trying to keep her emotions under control.

He had finished unzipping her jacket when he realized that all the symptoms she had been experiencing were usually associated with blood loss: the pills she had taken earlier had been plasma-pills, a military ration used to replace blood lost in battle. Usually with the aid of blood pills, the symptoms never got this bad, not unless the amount of blood lost was significant enough. Puzzled, He began to help her out of her jacket as he pulled the jacket off her right arm, he realized just how much her arm was bleeding, the inside of her coat sleeve was soaked with her blood, it was just about wrecked. He clothing underneath was splattered with a good amount of blood as well.

First he had to stop the bleeding and partially heal her wound, then replenish the blood she had lost, and make sure she stayed well hydrated, and at any sign of her body going into shock she had be further cared for...

He turned to look at her arm to get a better look at the wound.

Only her arm wasn't there. From her shoulder socket down – her entire arm was missing.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:

**OHHH! The suspense! Still want to know what team they faced in the forest – or can you guess? If you think you know drop a review and see if you right! Hehehe.**  
**Oh – And if your all still like; 'HEY – Why isn't Taki concerned about her arm?', or 'Wait – you never told us which village age their team is from!' or 'Jashin – wait – how does Taki know about Jashin?' or even 'WTF is wrong with you, you sick freak!? You cut off you own OC's arm just for kicks?'**

**Don't worry, Darlings, those questions will be answered in time. Well, all except for maybe the third one… there could be numerous reasons for that one. :P**

**Need some moar motivation?**

**NEXT CHAPTER THERE WILL BE KAKASHI. BITCHES LOVE KAKASHI.**


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